Augmented Reality for Visualisation of Electromagnetic Fields of Power Electronics

Visualising the usually invisible 3D EM fields and the induced effects are extremely important as it helps engineers understand why some designs work and why some don't. It also allows engineers to make informed decisions about design optimisation. AR/VR has the potential to offer much better and more intuitive visualisation at the design stage, and AR/Mixed Reality offers the ability for visualisation of invisible effects in existing systems, effectively providing x-ray vision that can explain why a system is behaving in the way it is.

Specific avenues to be explored include:
How AR/VR can be used to better visualise electrical, electromagnetic and thermal phenomena at the design stage. This will build on existing work in the PEMC group that is developing "Virtual Prototyping" design tools for power electronic systems and will support a recently awarded EPSRC research project in this area. Use of VR for design visualisation is already happening in other engineering disciplines (e.g. McLaren have used it for factory design [5] and JLR for automotive [6]).
Use of AR / Mixed Reality for real-time analysis and fault diagnosis of power electronic systems. This will support ongoing work in the PEMC group on real-time electro-thermal modelling, and prognostics for power electronics (intelligent control systems that can sense the health of power electronic systems whilst they are in operation [7]). This could provide immersive analysis tools for engineers, technicians and teachers.